Friday, September 11, 2015

Blog Post 2

I’m currently a member of a fraternity, and organization that frequently undergoes change in leadership.  The President, Vice President, Treasurer and a myriad of other positions are elected once a year.   The Executive Board is made up of the President, VP, Secretary, Treasurer, Sergeant at Arms, Social Chair, and Pledge Ed.  These members carry out many of the obligations of the Fraternity, as well as making sure the other members are doing their part.  It’s ultimately the responsibility of the Exec Board to make sure the Fraternity is doing everything correctly.  I have not held a position on the Board, but I’ve had a positive experience with this structure. 

Having all members in leadership roles replaced after a year seems like a very unstable way to run an organization.  In order to combat this, members who aspire to these positions will be “trained” or mentored in the upcoming semester by the incumbent.   This helps prepare the member for the position, but this structure could cost the organization as a whole in a couple of ways.  First, lessons learned by previous leaders that are not passed on will be forgotten, and could possibly be made again.  Also, structures or policies put in place by the current officers (that may ultimately prove good) might be eradicated by future members of the Board.  This would inhibit long-term growth within the organization.  Once current members of the Board have been replaced, they may not communicate well to the next members small details that could really benefit the organization if they were paid more attention. 

1 comment:

  1. This post is rather skimpy. The requirement stated in the syllabus is 600 words, minimum. While I've not counted words in your post, it doesn't pass an eyeball test.

    On the structure of your frats Exec Board, an alternative structure might have people serving for more than one year, taking on more responsibility with experience. This would provide continuity. But it would also mean that those people who serve in this capacity would have larger obligations. So there is a cost-benefit issue to consider as to which structure makes more sense. One way to get at that is whether there are difficulties with filling the board membership now or if in contrast, it is competitive to get on the board. I say these things, because they are the sort of issues you could have written about, to get your post to the appropriate length.

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